Pornography

Viewing of pornography can be harmful for children and teens, as it can form unrealistic expectations in terms of sexuality, women and beauty. Pornography can contribute towards objectifying women, by dissociating a woman's personality from her body, reducing her to a mere sexual favour. It is very difficult in today’s world to protect one’s children from porn. Pornography is no longer restricted to the top shelf or the “over 18” shops, and can be found everywhere thanks to the internet.

Parents are in a dilemma, when finding out that their child is watching porn. One shouldn’t punish their child if caught watching porn, as this could portray the image that sexual feelings and curiosity are wrong. Rather than not talk about porn as though it didn’t exist, one should try to instil a healthy view of sex and explain that it is normal to want to look at sexual images and videos, but this does not portray the real story. Porn can also become addictive, with users needing to look at more images or different types of images to have the same effect of arousal and sexual pleasure. Perhaps one way of preventing misuse, is to monitor their internet usage. A bit of freedom and privacy is needed, however one can use certain software to block access to pornographic sites. Unfortunately, sometimes even that is not enough, as random pop-ups do come up even when you are not looking for them.